I don't know a word of Japanese! - A COMPLETED TR!

[AllyBri]

What is the distance between the 2 Parks? Same train station stop?

Would you by any chance know the price of the momorail ride in American dollars?
Thanks.

[BecBennett]

Originally Posted by BelleBway

They have hand held translation devices available for the Magic Lamp Theater. I'm guessing you didn't get one of these? Guess it's too late for you, but for anyone reading this TR and planning a trip to TDR, there are several rides with hand held translation devices- the ones I recall are Magic Lamp and Little Mermaid at TDS and Enchanted Tiki Room with Stitch at TDR.

Yeah I knew these existed, but never really saw anyone to ask for one, until the show had started, so we just watched.

Originally Posted by AllyBri

What is the distance between the 2 Parks? Same train station stop?

Would you by any chance know the price of the momorail ride in American dollars?
Thanks.

Yes they're both at the Maihama train stop, you can walk between the two parks, but it's easier to take the monorail, especially after a long day

With todays exchange rate 250Y is about $3.20US, that's per person each way.

[BelleBway]

Originally Posted by BecBennett

Yeah I knew these existed, but never really saw anyone to ask for one, until the show had started, so we just watched.

Of all the 3 shows I got the handheld translators for, I felt that the one for Magic Lamp Theater was the most essential. (and, in contrast, the one for the Little Mermaid wasn't really needed) I don't recall ever having to ask- the CM's would offer them to me. Oh well.

[battymum]

How are you finding the speed of the U300 sim?

We all have smartphones, +2 ipads, so I was considering renting the portable wifi device - but I really want something so that we can contact each other should we get separated. Our kids are teenagers so I am not totally neurotic about being separated from them, (only extremely anxious,) but they must have a means of contacting us.

(actually it will make for a better holiday if we can have some timeout from each other)

I know they are data only, but they could send notifications through facebook.

The hotels where we are staying have wifi - so that should be OK for uploading photos etc .

[aussietravellers]

Absolutely LOVING the TR Bec! And a live TR too Thank you so much for sharing! Loving the food porn too!

[BecBennett]

Originally Posted by battymum

How are you finding the speed of the U300 sim?

We all have smartphones, +2 ipads, so I was considering renting the portable wifi device - but I really want something so that we can contact each other should we get separated. Our kids are teenagers so I am not totally neurotic about being separated from them, (only extremely anxious,) but they must have a means of contacting us.

(actually it will make for a better holiday if we can have some timeout from each other)

I know they are data only, but they could send notifications through facebook.

The hotels where we are staying have wifi - so that should be OK for uploading photos etc .

To be honest it's a bit unreliable But that could totally be my phone, and not the sim card. When it works the speed is great, but it seems to drop out a lot. I use mine more for directions and translations, I don't know if I would trust it to get in touch with someone.

Originally Posted by BelleBway

Of all the 3 shows I got the handheld translators for, I felt that the one for Magic Lamp Theater was the most essential. (and, in contrast, the one for the Little Mermaid wasn't really needed) I don't recall ever having to ask- the CM's would offer them to me. Oh well.

I don't think it ruined the experience for me or anything, and I probably would have missed the show a bit if I was constantly looking down to see what was being said. I might try and track them down harder next time

Originally Posted by aussietravellers

Absolutely LOVING the TR Bec! And a live TR too Thank you so much for sharing! Loving the food porn too!

Thanks for following along!

[BecBennett]

After lunch we headed back into the Mediterranean Harbour and hopped on the Venetian Gondolas. This is sort of like The Jungle Cruise, but with less to look at. The two people steering the Gondola talked away, and the other people all laughed at what was being said, but we had no idea.




I often wonder why there are seats in every queue..?

We then spent a lot more time wandering around. It’s a pretty big park.



20K Leagues Under the Sea only had a short wait, so we decided to give it a go. I don’t think I was expecting much of this ride – I figured it was going to be similar to Finding Nemo, and to be honest I think finding nemo is a little boring… (The ride! Not the movie, the movie is awesome) And while technically it is pretty similar to Nemo I found this really enjoyable!

We then walked into the Little Mermaid area. This is such a pretty area! I could have taken photos in there all day.











We decided to head in and watch the Little Mermaid show. This is an amazing show, again it’s in Japanese and we didn’t get a translator, and technically it’s just an over the top puppet show, but boy what a show!! I loved it. I didn’t take any photos while in there, but if I’d been more prepared before going in there were some great photo ops.

The little mermaid area would be great for kids, there are all these little rooms that come off it, with different things inside. Including Aerial’s Grotto.






We found a hidden mickey while crawling through big things of coral...

There’s a one way mirror in there, and I’m not sure what it’s for, but we were standing on the side where you could see through the mirror, and when I press the shutter half way down on my camera a little LED lights up on the front, so every time someone looked into the one way mirror I’d turn the light on, which they could see, but still couldn’t see us. We had a good giggle about all the people who would do double takes at the light, and then go in for a closer look. (yeah I know, small things, small minds - whatever)

After a bit of exploring it was time to use our indy FP’s. The FP’s worked really well, so I can’t comment too much on the queue, but it looked really well done.





Indiana Jones is very similar to the DLR one, except it feels slightly more fine-tuned. Plus there’s a spot where a large fire ball is blown at you, which is a really cool effect. Indy is probably my favourite ride at the park.

After Indy DH grabbed some spicy smoked chicken from one of the stalls near the exit, he said it was amazing. We picked up a FP for Raging Spirits to use later.



We did some more wandering around the park, including (I think it’s called) Discovery Cove, which is basically about people who discovered countries, and lots of other stuff. There’s a few things to look at in this area, but nothing really to keep you there. We spent most our time either exploring the big boat, or controlling one of the little boats.





While we were on the big boat the announcements for Mythica started up. We probably would have had a pretty good view from the boat, but we were in the sun and protected from any breezes, so we decided to see if we could find a spot on the Mediterranean bridge, as there had been a lovely breeze through there before.


(This Place)

[BelleBway]

Originally Posted by BecBennett

I don't think it ruined the experience for me or anything, and I probably would have missed the show a bit if I was constantly looking down to see what was being said. I might try and track them down harder next time

I've seen it with and without a translator (they didn't have translators my previous trip) and thought I was being helpful, but sorry for saying anything. I'll shut up and just enjoy the report.

[BecBennett]

Mythica goes for a very long time…







The floats are awesome, with lots of details and they even do stuff!! Like the unicorn blinks his eyes and rears up on his back legs. I’m not sure what the others do, they were too far away. I don’t really get the story for this show, but the jet skis fly kites, and that makes it cool.





It probably could have been half as long though.



By this time DH was getting “thirsty”, so we stopped at American Waterfront so he could have a few beers. The sign said they sold Kirin Draft, Frozen Kirin draft and soft drinks, but by soft drinks they just meant iced tea. We’re not really sure what frozen kirin draft is, but we think it’s something to do with the head on the beer.

We sat down for a while enjoying the atmosphere and taking the time off our feet. I then decided it was time that I tried the strawberry popcorn that I’d heard so much about. It meets its hype. Strawberry popcorn is so good! We only saw a few flavours of popcorn while we were in the parks. Only one strawberry cart, salted popcorn, sea salt popcorn (don’t know what the difference is there), curry popcorn, and soy sauce and butter popcorn. I was expecting to see more. There were so many different types of popcorn buckets about though. There was no way I’d be able to eat that much popcorn though, so we didn’t buy any.




Look - it's one of those duffy "photo spots" - we think they're weird because usually we get photos of ourselves in front of these photo spots, and we ask questions like "Do they really take photos of their Duffys here?" But I bet they think it's weird like "Do they really have to tell us that's where we put our Duffys to get a photo of them?" and then they see people like us, taking photos of the empty spot and realise "They do have to tell some people what those spots are for!" Ok, maybe I'm thinking about it too much...



We then made our way back into Lost River Delta to use our raging spirits fast passes. The theming on this ride is great. However personally I would love to see it tweaked a little bit, so it is themed to The Emperor’s New Groove, because it’s already pretty close. Raging Spirits is OK, but it could be a lot faster. Every time you think it’s about to get good it slows down again. Then it’s over… Worth a ride, but not worth a wait…





After we got off Raging Spirits the sun had gone down (and DH wanted another beer) so we went back through American Waterfront, and had a look at Toyville again. It’s so pretty when it’s all lit up! Lights everywhere! We managed to catch a little Mr. Potato head show while there. We have no idea what was being said, but it was funny trying to work it out. Mr. Potato head is behind a curtain, and only comes out every now and then to do a little show. The wait for Toy Story Mania had gone down to 100 minutes, but we still weren’t going to wait that long for it.









We then spent half an hour trying to get good photos of TOT. When an elevator door is about to open lightning strikes at the top of the building, and then zaps down to the elevator. We were trying to capture that.




See the green stuff? That's lightning!

There was also a little water fountain area next to us that was all lit up, and every now and then the fountains would work in time with the music that was playing. So that mesmerised us for a little while.

[BecBennett]

Originally Posted by BelleBway

I've seen it with and without a translator (they didn't have translators my previous trip) and thought I was being helpful, but sorry for saying anything. I'll shut up and just enjoy the report.

No, I love your input! That's what we do these TR's for isn't it? To make sure we spread info, so please add where you feel necessary!

[Travel Mum]

Oh Bec, I didn't know you were doing a live TR but I just stumbled across it today. Awesome, thanks so much and it's great !!

[BelleBway]

Originally Posted by BecBennett

No, I love your input! That's what we do these TR's for isn't it? To make sure we spread info, so please add where you feel necessary!

LOL, I thought that you were rolling your eyes at me in your previous post so I figured maybe I was inadvertently acting like a bit of a know it all.

[PrincessInOz]

Awesome pictures! Loving the live TR but I hope you're spending time enjoying your holiday as well.

Thanks for sharing.

[battymum]

Originally Posted by BecBennett

To be honest it's a bit unreliable But that could totally be my phone, and not the sim card. When it works the speed is great, but it seems to drop out a lot. I use mine more for directions and translations, I don't know if I would trust it to get in touch with someone.

Thanks for following along!

What are you using for translating, I have downloaded an app that you can record and translate but I think it might be a bit unreliable and could possibly get us in trouble😄

[BecBennett]

It's just the Google Translate App. I wouldn't recommend talking into it and expecting it to be accurate, but typing into it seems to work ok.

DH needed some athlete's foot cream, and we were able to get that using the app, but one of my ears is blocked and that doesn't seem to translate well, as people just look at me weird and try and give me ear plugs...

However most of the time if English isn't understood using your hands does the trick.